Night Snorkel

Yesterday was our first opportunity for a night snorkel, which, as you may have guessed, is a snorkel session at night. We walked down to the dock at sunset, and went over the procedure with our dive master, Ricardo. While on the dock, we got to watch a beautiful sunset, and play with Xena, the dog that likes to follow us everywhere.

Sitting on the dock waiting for Ricardo...

Siri (one of the instructors) making sure Xena doesn't jump off the dock

When we got out to the night snorkel, we all jumped in the water with our flashlights on so we could see where we were headed. The coral reefs look much different at night, with different creatures and plants than you normally see during the daytime. Sea urchins were out in large numbers, and one of our group accidentally got stung when he reached a hand out to swim by some coral. We also saw quite a few lobsters, which is good for the locals since lobster season opens on the first of August. No sea turtles, which was a little disappointing, although some people found a nurse shark. But by far the best part of the night snorkel was when we collectively shut off our flashlights and watched the bioluminescence appear. It was like watching stars underwater, almost as if the world had flipped upside down and the sea was now the sky. We snorkeled for a little over a hour, and then returned to the boats to head back home.